A foldable door is a door that can fold by means of hinges, and is suitable for opening and closing an opening of an article of furniture (e.g., cupboard or closet) or a partition member (e.g., partition member between rooms in a building).
If the folded door protrudes from the front face of the article of furniture or from the front face of the partition member, the folded door becomes an obstacle. In recent years, therefore, a stowable folding door device that can stow the folded door inward of the article of furniture or the partition member is proposed (see Patent Literature 1).
As shown in FIG. 11, this stowable folding door device includes a slider 4 that causes the foldable door to move in the depth direction of the article of furniture. The foldable door 2 has two doors (i.e., doors 1 and 2), the doors 1 and 2 are rotatably connected to each other by hinges 3. One end of the door 1 is rotatably supported by the slider 4. One end of the door 2 is rotatably supported by a roller traveling element 6 that travels along a guide rail 5. The guide rail 5 bends in an L shape, and includes a first guide rail 5a that is parallel to the front face of the article of furniture, and a second guide rail 5b that extends in the depth direction of the article of furniture.
This stowable folding door device is equipped with a lock mechanism to prevent the slider 4 from moving before the foldable door completely closes. This is because if the slider 4 moves prior to the complete folding of the foldable door, the folded door cannot be stowed in the article of furniture. The lock mechanism includes a hook 7 that is supported by the slider 4 such that the hook can rotate about a predetermined rotation shaft. As illustrated in FIG. 11(a), the hook 7 engages with a recess (not shown) of the article of furniture to prevent the slider 4 from moving in the depth direction of the article of furniture prior to the complete folding of the foldable door. As illustrated in FIG. 11(b), as the foldable door is completely folded, a working plate (not shown) provided on the roller traveling element 6 abuts on the hook 7, and the hook 7 rotates to disengage the hook 7 from the recess of the article of furniture. This allows the slider 4 to move in the depth direction of the article of furniture.